1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to navigation systems and mobile telephone systems and more specifically to combinations of navigation and cellular telephone instruments that can automatically report a mobile phone location in street address and other non-traditional location formats.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By their very nature, cellular telephones are mobile. However, a cellular telephone user or a user's caller may not know the current location of the user's cellular telephone, because the user is unavailable or does not know its location in precise terms.
The automatic reporting of a user's cellular telephone location is useful in a number of situations. However, most cellular telephone users are not professional navigators and need to have their locations expressed in lay terms, e.g., street locations or proximity to major intersections. Emergency services and dispatchers who have access to a user's location also need an automated position answer expressed in familiar lay terms, if not directly integrated with an automatic vehicle locator (AVL) dispatch system.